Method and system implemented by a collaborative distributed computational network, and related devices

ABSTRACT

Method and system implemented by a collaborative distributed computational network, and related devices, comprising a plurality of client devices supported by a computational network to cooperatively perform interactive operations in at least one community of practice organized in a hierarchical structure at strategic levels, wherein said method comprises the steps of registering at least one community of practice on the computational network, creating a network of practice; assigning a unique identification code for a device on the network of practice computational network, identifying a user through an unique identification user code; connecting the user to at least one community of network of practice; defining a practice; unfolding the practice in strategic levels of this community of practice; registering the practice on the computational network; locating the practice in organizational or geo graphical coordinates; registering the localization of practice on the computational network; selecting a template guide containing sequential instructions content (as a script) and components; configuring the guide that implements the practice at the strategic level of the community of practice; publishing the guide in a client device through computer applications; setting up the interfaces of guides of client device for groups of people in group interactions of the same strategic level or between community of practice strategic levels; setting up specific interfaces of guides for individual actions on the client devices for individual interaction; manipulating guides on the client device group for the group interaction or when there is interaction between community of practice strategic levels; manipulating the individual guides on personal client devices when there are individual actions; storing the guide manipulation data in a distributed and asynchronous way on the client devices; maintaining versioning of data from historical records; synchronize data between client devices themselves and with the servers when the there is connectivity between them; and process the distributed guide data organizing and sorting out the history of best practices.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to the field of technicalsystems, equipments and methods of digital computing and dataprocessing, specially adapted for specific functions.

BACKGROUND ART

There is a plurality of systems and methods in the prior art oriented tocooperatively perform interactive operations.

Some conventional systems are oriented to collaborative environments.For example, the patent document EP0756237B1 (Canon Kabushiki Kaisha)describes ways to record environment configuration information toconfigure an application environment for cooperative operation for agroup of workers. Patent document US20050278642A1 (Hewlett-PackardCompany) describes a system for controlling a collaborative computingenvironment comprising: one or more servers, one or more client devices,a network that connects the server(s) with client device(s), acollaborative environment with a data structure that maintains theglobal state status of one or more environment elements of thecollaborative environment, a module for collecting operatingcharacteristics which describe at least one client device, a module forchanging the way of rendering the environment elements for one or moreclient devices based on their operating characteristics, and a module toenable interactions between client devices and environment elementsaccording to the current state of the environment elements in the globalstate data structure.

Other systems are oriented to communities of practice, for example,patent document U.S. Pat. No. 7,127,440 (Caterpillar Inc.) describes amethod of implementing a community of practice to develop, for example,a program among employees, which involves identifying roles andresponsibilities of participants and their goals, based on the need forthe community of practice. The patent document US20060112052(Caterpillar Inc.) describes a knowledge document management system foran organization, providing a knowledge document from a community ofpractice, to another practice in response to the request of respectivemember from other practice.

The definition of communities of practice is cited by patent documentUS20030216942 (Comsortlnc) that describes a system for influence networkmarketing. This document describes that businesses, especially those inknowledge industries, have developed a big interest in promoting andforming communities of practice among organizations as a mean ofproviding a high quality mode of work for the company, in whichcommunities of practice provide an effective way of managingorganizational knowledge. The document US20030216942 cites thisphenomenon as described by Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder in their book‘Cultivating Communities of Practice, chapter 1, pgs. 1-21’. As used inthe document US20030216942, the term ‘community of practice’ can betaken to mean, as in the article by Lesser and Prusak, a group ofindividuals linked by informal relations that share similar work rulesand a common context. The document US20030216942 also describes thatGongla and Rizzuto show their experiences with such communities ofpractice in a large organization, in their article titled ‘EvolvingCommunities of Practice: IBM Global Services Experience.’

Still, regarding communities of practice, and their involvement withtechnology, the book ‘Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology forCommunities’ of Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John D. Smith definesthat the three traditional elements of a Community of Practice establishdemands regarding technology, as described below.

First, for the element ‘domain’, technology enables the communities andtheir members to explore, define and express a common identity; enablesthem to see which are the open issues and negotiate a learning agendathat is worth pursuing; establishes who are the members and theirpurposes, and can help communities discover where it stands. and revealit to others.

For the element ‘practice’, technology allows for continuous mutualengagement around the practice; it provides access to each other'spractices; it defines which learning activities are possible; it canaccelerate the cycle in which members explore, test and refine goodpractices; it can help a community create a shared context over time forpeople to realize continuous exchanges, articulated perspectives,accumulated knowledge and provide access to histories, tools, solutionsand concepts.

Finally, for the element ‘community’, technology can support the bondingexperience that makes the community the social environment for grouplearning, it can help people meet and decrease isolation; revealsinteresting connections and enables members to meet in relevant ways; itcan increase the interaction between diversity and shared knowledge; andit enables various groups and individuals to have initiative, assumeleadership roles develop new roles, and create subgroups, projects andconversations.

A technical problem in particular in view of the documents cited in theprior art is that they do not provide adequate control of the operationsof cooperative interaction between different strategic levels of anorganization, redefining (unfolding) the practice in cycles of planningand execution, while at the same time enabling the authorship by itsusers by using devices that comprise a highly cognitive compatible userinterface.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and system implemented by adistributed collaborative computational network, and related devices.The method, system and devices target communities of practice, allowingfor execution of cooperative interactive operations between differentstrategic levels of an organization, and authorship by users through theinterface configured especially for this purpose.

The method and system are implemented by a collaborative computationalnetwork comprising a plurality of client devices supported by saidcomputational network to cooperatively perform interactive operations ina community of practice organized in a hierarchical structure in atleast two strategic levels, wherein, for example, said method comprisingthe steps of registering at least one community of practice in thecomputational network, creating a network of practice; associating aunique identification code for a network device in the computationalnetwork of the practice network; identifying a user via a uniqueidentification code of user; connecting the user to at least one networkof communities of practice; defining a practice; redefining the practicein strategic levels of the community of practice; registering thepractice in the computational network, locating the practice inorganizational or geographical coordinates; registering the localizationof the practice in the computational network; selecting a guide templatecontaining sequential instructions (as a script) made up of content andcomponents; setting up a guide that implements the practice at strategiclevels of the community of practice; publishing the guide in a clientdevice through a computational application; implementing the guidesinterfaces for client device for groups of people in group interactionsof the same strategic level or between strategic levels of the communityof practice; implementing specific interfaces of the guides forindividual actions in the client devices for individual interaction;manipulating the guides in the client device for groups in groupinteractions or when there is interaction between strategic levels ofthe community of practice; manipulating guides individually in personalclient devices when there are individual actions; storing the data ofthe manipulated guides in a distributed and asynchronous way in theclient devices, maintaining versioning of data through historicalrecords; synchronizing guides data from client devices among themselvesand with the servers whenever there is connectivity between them;processing data of guides distributed in the system, and provide thepractices history sharing.

The present invention provides many advantageous effects by means of itssystem and method implemented by a collaborative distributedcomputational network forming a network of practice that ischaracterized by comprising a plurality of client devices supported by acomputational network to cooperatively perform interactive operations ina community of practice organized in a hierarchical structure of atleast two strategic levels.

Said method, system and related devices provide support for explicitlyredefining practices in different strategic levels and dimensions, withguides and their sets of appropriate pages, taking into account theexisting organization, formal relations between groups and the workplaceculture.

It is also provided by the present invention the support to the completecycles of practice planning and execution, taking into account theexisting organization, with rules for the exchange of valid informationbetween levels through computerized guides.

It is also allowed the authorship of guides that guide the practice bypeople with low computer literacy, leveraging the use of Information andCommunication Technologies adapted to organizations by the employeesthemselves with their expertise in the environment in which they work.

Furthermore, the present invention provides support for the redefinitionof planning tools aligned to the organization strategy and adapted tothe specific strategic level and dimension. On the other hand, supportis provided for the synthesis of information from each strategic leveland dimension for use in other levels and dimensions by means ofestablished procedures.

The present invention provides a support to the processes of unfoldingand synthesis in a group computational device that supportscollaborative face-to-face activities.

The support of a history of best practices is also enabled by thepresent invention, thus contributing to the process of drawingconnections between the community of practice's processes ofparticipation and reification in a systematic way.

Additionally, it is possible to support a practice performanceevaluation through indicators (quantitative) and narratives of valuecreation (qualitative), in an integrated manner.

Finally, the present invention enables the support of curated usethrough a dedicated interface, the validated practice templates, theauthorship of guides even by users with low computer literacy but whoare specialists in the work domain, the guidance on filling the guidesonly with relevant information, and the cycles of practice useappropriated to the domain.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in conjunction withthe figures and embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a general flowchart of an overall system of practices andguides in a collaborative computational network of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed flowchart of the step of system implementationshown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a detailed flowchart of the step of setting the authorship ofpractices and guides shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a detailed flowchart of the step of guides management shown inFIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a detailed flowchart of the step of guides management insuccession to

FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the implementation phase of the system ofthe present invention, detailing the definition of the community ofpractice, the assignment of the client device to the community ofpractice, and the identification of a user in the community practice.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the step of practices and guides authorshipof the present invention, detailing the definition of strategic levelsand localization of the practices, and guide selection and set up.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the step of guide management of the presentinvention, detailing the flow associated to publishing the guide inclient devices.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the step of guide use , detailing themanipulation, storage and synchronization of the guides.

FIG. 10 is a representation of the network architecture, showing therelationship between various devices and servers in different strategiclevels in accordance with the present invention.

FIGS. 11 a to 11 d represent the various levels of navigation andpresentation of the user interface elements displayed on the clientdevices for individual or group interaction to generate practice guidesof the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a general flowchart showing the general steps of practices andguides for the method and system implemented by a collaborativedistributed computational network of the present invention, comprisingfour general steps which refer generally to step (1) of system set up,general step (2) of authorship of practices, general step (3) of guidemanagement, and general step (4) of guide use.

In the present invention, the terminology ‘guide’ should be understoodas a result of composing electronic pages interface elements structuredaccording to a template, for example, to be configured andor manipulatedby users at certain superior strategic level and manipulated by users ofan immediately inferior strategic level, which supports actions relatedto planning and performing a practice, and such actions may be carriedout individually or in groups. For the term ‘practice’ it should beunderstood to refer to a purpose of a community of practice, which needsto unfold in at least two strategic levels and be reflected in all theguides of those strategic levels. Regarding the use of the term‘strategic level’, it is understood that refers to each of the levels ofstrategic structure of an organization, also known as the strategic,tactical and operational level, and being arranged in this order.

As seen in the sequence of steps detailed in FIGS. 2 and 6, the initialgeneral step (1) of the implementation of the system may be betterunderstood. In order to perform the set up of the system it is firstnecessary step (5) of the definition of the community of practice,comprising a step (6) of activation of client devices for group andindividual interaction, a step (7) of establishing whether a communityof practice already exists, followed by step (8) of registration of thecommunity of practice, or the step (9) of entering connection data forthe community of practice, accordingly. Thus it is possible to go tostep (10) of assigning the client device to the community of practice,comprising step (11) of at least one register of said community ofpractice in the computational network of community of practice, thuscreating a network of practice by associating a unique identificationcode for a client device in the computational network of the network ofpractice, followed by, step (12) of authentication of said device tosaid computational network. After that, it is possible to go on to step(14) of user registration, through step (13) of identifying a user ofthe community of practice through a unique identification user code,then occurring the register of the user in the computational device ofthe community of practice and assigning it to at least one network ofpractice.

After the system set up, follows general step (2) of authorship ofpractices and guides, and it is then necessary, as seen in FIG. 3, theinitial step (15) of definition of a practice so as to unfold it instrategic levels of this community of practice, in the next step (16)the practice is registered on the computational network. Then followsstep (1 7) in which the practice is located in geographic ororganizational coordinates and the localization of the practice in thecomputational network is registered. It is then possible to go to step(18) in which a template guide containing sequential instructions (as ascript) made up of content and components are selected so that thepractice can be implemented. In this way, it is allowed the guideauthorship in the client device. Finally, in the next step (19), it ispossible to configure the guide so as to implement the practice at thestrategic levels of the community of practice.

Similarly, FIG. 7 shows a block diagram detailing step (20) of definingand redefining of strategic levels and localization of practice, andstep (21) of selection and configuration of the guide. Authorship ofpractices and guides is initiated by the step (22) of user and deviceauthentication in the computational network, when then there is thedefinition (23) if the client device is for group interaction or not, ifnot it can follow to step (24) of authorship of practices and guidesthrough single use device that works as a remote control of groupdevice, or if yes it follows to step (25) of registration of practicesand then proceed to step (26) of localization of each practice. Afterlocalization of each the practice, it is enabled step (27) of guidetemplate selection and then follows the step (28) of authorship of theguides in the client device.

General step (3) of guide management, as detailed in FIGS. 4 and 8, andgeneral step (4) of guide use as detailed in FIGS. 5 and 9, comprise theinitial step (29) of publishing the guide in a client device throughprogram applications, consisting in step (30) of user or deviceauthentication in the computational network, to define (31) if thedevice is of group interaction or not, and if not then it is possible togo to step (32) of remote access to the group device through a singleuse device, and if it is, follows to latter step (33) of allocation ofdevices of practice, and to the step (34) of association of informationsuch as activities, guides, users, device, territory, date and time, anduser permissions. After that, in the next step (35), guideimplementation and manipulating paths are adopted for later storage,synchronization and data processing of the guides. On the one hand,there is step (36) of set up of guide interfaces for the client devicefor groups of people in group interactions of the same strategic levelor between strategic levels in a community of practice, and thenproceeds to step (37) of manipulation of the guides on the group clientdevice when in group interaction andor when there is interaction betweenstrategic levels of the community of practice. On the other hand, thereis step (38) of set up of specific guide interfaces for individualactions in individual client devices and then proceed to step (39) ofmanipulation of the individual guides in individual interaction clientdevices whenever there are individual actions. In any event,specifically the step (40) of manipulation of the guides is the resultof the actions included in step (41) of user andor device authenticationin the computational network, by step (42) of navigation through thestructure of practices and guides, and finally culminating in step (43)of manipulation of the guide. After guide set up and manipulation step(44) of storage of guide data is enabled, more specifically step (45) inwhich the data from manipulated guides is stored in a distributed andasynchronous manner in the client devices while maintaining dataversioning through historic registers so that, only then, said data ofthe guides is forwarded to step (46) in which they are synchronizedbetween client devices and among themselves, and with the servers whenthere is connectivity between them. In this step (46) of guide datasynchronization there is a checkup (47) of whether there is acomputational network present, and only if there is follows a step (48)of guide synchronization in the computational network. Finally, afterstep (46) of guide data synchronization follows step (49) in which guidedistributed data is compiled by arranging and ordering practice history,for example, of best practices, and only then the sharing of suchhistory of practices is made available.

A representation of the collaborative distributed computationalarchitecture of a community of practice, in which are applied themethod, system and device of the present invention can be seen in FIG.10, which shows the relationship between servers and various clientdevices in different strategic levels.

The means of registration of a community of practice in thecollaborative distributed computational network and creation of anetwork of practice include client devices distributed at differentstrategic levels of the hierarchical structure of the community ofpractice, and such client devices are categorized as client devices forindividual interaction and client devices for group interaction.

Client devices for individual interaction can be any type of module,device structure or computational equipment wherein the user interactionwith the device is done in a individual context with ability tointeract, connect with other equipment to establish externalcommunication, transmit and receive data. Devices such as personalcomputers, notebooks, laptops, PDAs or tablets are considered ofinteraction and individual viewing.

As for the client device for group interaction used in the presentinvention, they may be modules, device structures or electronic devicesincluding hardware typically having one interactive surface such asmulti-touch (touch screen technology), and one display-only orinteractive panel for one or more users through specific user interfaceelements for setting up guides of practice, and such actions performedin these devices are supported by specific software. Such devices areparticularly used in the areas of marketing, education, training,activity planning, decision-support, support for mission criticalprocesses, supervision and control, therefore having particularapplication in the collaborative distributed computational network,particularly in the establishment of networks of communities of practiceof the present invention, for supporting activities marked in theprocess as being group activities. Devices such as interactiveprojectors, smart TVs or whiteboards and others are also consideredgroup interaction devices, but with individual intermediation by amember that operates the means of input of the device and whom mayfollow sequential instructions, define a path of interaction or evenrepresent the group's.

The device for group interaction with individual intermediation ischaracterized by comprising: at least one display screen; a pointingdevice or other control device for individual intermediation with theinteractive surface; a user interactive surface represented by thedisplay screen coupled with the control device; means to lay out aplurality of user interface elements in the user interactive surface;means for detecting a user's action on the interactive surface forselection and activation of at least one of a plurality of userinterface elements; and means to arrange a plurality of levels ofnavigation, and display at least one of said display screens in responseto the selection and activation by a user of a user interface element inthe user interactive surface.

In addition to the client devices, other means of registration of acommunity of practice in the collaborative distributed computationalnetwork and for creating a network of practice include servers connectedto client devices at different strategic levels of the hierarchicalstructure of the community of practice, and databases distributedthrough different strategic levels of the hierarchical structure of thecommunity of practice, and said databases are spread amongst distributedclient devices and servers of said community of practice.

Said client devices, servers and distributed database also collaboratefor the association and identification of a unique identification codefor a device and a user in the collaborative distributed computationalnetwork of the network of practice, providing authentication of practiceauthorship among several hierarchical levels.

As means of connecting the user to the network of practice in thecollaborative distributed computing network of the network of practiceof the present invention can be used, beyond the proper client devicesandor servers, other on demand connection and data exchange devices withor without wired connections between client devices and servers, or evendevices for remote connection to the group client devices, such as aremote connection via Internet VPN.

The client devices, whether client devices for individual interaction orfor group interaction, along with the servers connected to the clientdevices at different strategic levels of the hierarchical structure ofthe community of practice, and the databases distributed throughdifferent strategic levels of the hierarchical structure of thecommunity of practice, which said databases are spread amongst clientdevices and servers of said community of practice, provide thedefinition, redefinition (unfolding), registration and localization of apractice among strategic levels of a community of practice on thecollaborative distributed computational network.

The devices described in the international application PCT\BR2009\000423and PCT\BR2011\000109, and Brazilian patent application (INPIBR)BRP11102625-1, documents that are incorporated herein by reference, areexamples of suitable devices to implement the methods and systemsdescribed herein.

For an appropriate use of the practices implemented in differenthierarchical levels, the guide interface has an essential role in theselection, configuration and implementation of practices betweenstrategic levels on the collaborative distributed computational networkof the present invention. To do so, a template guide interface isdisplayed on the client devices (for group or individual interaction),which comprises sequential instructions (as a script) made up of contentand components. For interaction with a user are used computationalapplications for publication of the guide interface being displayed onsaid client devices. Such guide interface works as a tool forinteraction between group client devices of the same strategic level ordifferent strategic levels of community of practice, there may be aspecific interface guide for individual actions in the client devicesfor individual interaction. The guide interface can be exemplified by aset of pages and references, such as screen sequences, similar to anelectronic magazine, whose contents are selectable and editable by theuser according to its current strategic level, and that is how the usersets up a practice.

As means of manipulating guides, an interface for user interaction isresponsible for such manipulation in strategic levels of interaction ofthe community of practice, such interface being displayed in said groupclient devices and in such individual client devices. The interface formanipulation of guides is integrated to a hardware device, for example,multi-touch interfaces in group interaction devices, as described above.

As a particularly important feature of the present invention, thestorage of data of guides manipulated in a distributed way in thecollaborative computational network of the network of practice, isprovided by the client devices and servers, which perform thedistributed and asynchronous storage of data as well as historicalrecording of actions in different strategic levels of the hierarchicalstructure of the community of practice. The subsequent synchronizationof guide data is performed between said client devices and servers thathave connectivity with said client devices.

In order to manage the data of the manipulated guides, particularlyadding data processing to the information generated by the network ofpractice, servers, as well as client devices, act as devices fororganizing, sorting, and sharing the history of best practices.

As mentioned, the client device in the collaborative distributedcomputational network of the network of practice, particularlyelectronic devices featuring interactive multi-touch surface forindividual or group interaction, present in different strategic levelsof the hierarchical structure of the community of practice of thepresent invention have essential part in allowing authorship withincommunities of practice and the consequent generation of guides forpractice.

To generate such guides for practice, the electronic device featuringmulti-touch surface for individual or group interaction may comprise:

up to two display screens, wherein one of said display screens containsthe user interactive multi-touch surface (such as an interactivedesktop),

means to provide a plurality of user interface elements on the userinteractive multi-touch surface,

means for detecting the user's touch on a display screen of userinteractive multi-touch surface for selecting and activating of at leastone of a plurality of elements of the user interface, and

means for arranging a plurality of levels of navigation and displayingit on at least one of said display screens, in response to selection andactivation by a user of the elements of user interface in the userinteractive multi-touch surface.

Alternatively, for generating guides of practice, instead of theelectronic device featuring interactive multi-touch surface forindividual or group interaction, mobile devices such as tablets may beused. In this case, the only difference will be that this device isnormally provided with only one screen for display and interactivesurface performance. The means for arranging elements of user interfaceand touch detection may be similar, while the arrangement of levels ofnavigation and exhibition of guides of practice are necessarily similaramong the many user interface devices of the present invention.

As to said user interface, it is characterized by comprising:

at least one of a plurality of editable elements of user interfacearranged on the display screen of interactive multi-touch surface;

each user interface element contains editing attributes with informationregarding navigation and editing modes in the configuration of a guidestructure (FIG. 11A), wherein

in a first display level, at least one element from a plurality ofpossible elements of user interface is made available for selection andactivation by the user, wherein

in response to manipulation by a user through the selection andactivation of said first element of user interface, a new set ofnavigation elements is displayed, generating a second level of display,the previous level being kept on display;

subsequent levels of display set a composite guide structure;

each said display level is editable according to each user accesspermissions;

in response to manipulation by a user, each said display level iseditable by changing the order of presentation, elimination andmodification of said elements of user interface, and

in response to manipulation by a user, each said display level iseditable, by defining access permissions for other users.

Such user interface features can be better understood with FIGS. 11A to11D that represent the various levels of sets of presentation elementsfeatured on the client devices for individual or group interaction togenerate guides of practice.

FIG. 11B illustrates a first level of navigation wherein a userinterface element is presented in an interactive display surface (50),containing an information, whether simple or compound. The userinterface element is represented by a rectangle (geometric shape adoptedas an example as said interface element may take other shapes) that mayor may not be activated or selected, and may contain attributes such asthe number of views, the number of users who liked the item and thenumber of comments, and may contain controls that enable actions for theitem, such as ‘like’ and ‘comment’; and may contain links to relatedinformation, such as to who ‘liked’ it and to comments associated toeach item (FIG. 11A).

The rectangle of a user interface element is both editable andactionable, the latter resulting in the opening of a new ordered set ofrectangles in the interactive multi-touch display surface (50), as seenin FIG. 11B.

FIG. 11B illustrates a second level of navigation, which begins with anordered set of user interface elements, such as rectangles arranged (forexample, horizontally) in the interactive multi-touch display surface(50). Each user interface element represents a structured informationelement, setting up a guide page structure (51).

Since the user interface element rectangle is editable and can beactivated by a user, it allows the subsequent opening of a new orderedset of rectangles on the interactive multi-touch display surface (50),and consequently a new guide page structure (52), as seen in FIG. 11C,keeping the former set still visible and its corresponding displayelement in a visual selected state (FIG. 11C)

Besides displaying the guide on the user interactive multi-touchsurface, a detailed view for the selected item can also be displayed ona second screen or display context of said electronic device forindividual or group interaction. In this case, it is on the seconddisplay screen further information from selected item: for compositeelements, some summary of its components; for simple elements('content') a visual representation for the element;

It is important to point out that at each level of navigation, each userinterface element and each ordered set of said user interface elementscan be edited at any time, as long as the user has the permission andthe guide template allows it, and it is possible to change the displayorder, set type and content for the element, decide to eliminate or adduser interface elements, or even define other users access permissions,

The same behavior for structuring of the guide, with the same operationsof usage apply to all navigation levels, including subsequent levels, asseen in FIG. 11C, wherein other subsequent guide page structure (52) isconfigured in the interactive multi-touch display surface (50).

Whenever an element is being edited it suggests a composite (when it isa guide) or simple (when it is an atomic simple element) structure forits realization (FIG. 11D).

With the manipulation performed on the user interface, elements,navigating will by itself highlight the rectangles that have beenactivated and thus set the context for current information, allowingalso for going back one's own steps to navigation that has beenpreviously performed.

Note that each user interface element which contents are edited withinthe permitted realizations for this determined user interface elementresults in a new compound structure, such as a guide structure, orresults in a simple structure such as an image, audio or video element.

Therefore, according to the present invention, guides can be viewed atany level of navigation, such as an electronic magazine, assembled fromthe contents of user interface elements contained within a particularlevel and subsequent levels.

The present invention enables the use of interface for communities ofpractice through its elements of user interface, enabling themanipulation and authorship of guides even by users with low computerliteracy, just being required that the user learns how to manipulate asmall set of interface elements to use them at all levels of navigationand execution.

Moreover, there is not the usual and artificial distinction between filefolders, files and elements within a file. For slideshows, for example,sets of user interface elements would be used to organize them, being acompound element to represent the presentation, and compound elements torepresent each slide, and simple elements to represent each informationwithin a slide.

There is no distinction of viewing modes, for normal usage andauthorship. Given the permissions, all users are consumers and authorsof knowledge represented in the elements of information within theguides, which enables the protagonism of all members of a community ofpractice.

Therefore, a set of users can form the authorship of a sequence ofelements of user interface which will be then used at a non-authorshiplevel by a another set of users. Thus, users who typically are justconsumers of preformatted Information and Communication Technologiesacquire basic software authorship for themselves and other users, in aconcept of the kind ‘end-user programming’. This authorship enables, forexample, a more prominent and active role for workers in work practicesby defining ways of working for themselves and other users in accordingto the new knowledge of best practices. Thus, the present inventionthrough its system, method and related devices, enables quick reflectionlessons learnt and mean to disseminate best practices immediately anddirectly, with no need for technology brokers.

1. A method implemented by a collaborative distributed computationalnetwork characterized by comprising a plurality of client devicessupported by a computational network to cooperatively performinteractive operations in at least one community of practice organizedin a hierarchical structure of strategic levels, wherein said methodcomprises: a) registering at least one community of practice on thecomputational network, creating a network of practice; b) assigning aunique identification code for a device on the computational network ofthe network of practice; c) identifying a user through a uniqueidentification user code ; d) assigning the user to at least one networkof practice; e) defining a practice; f) redefining the practice instrategic levels of such community of practice; g) registering thepractice in the computational network; h) locating the practice inorganizational andor geographical coordinates; i) registering thelocalization of the practice on the computational network; j) selectinga guide template containing sequential instructions (as a script) andcomponents; k) setting up the guide that implements the practice at thestrategic levels of the community of practice; l) publishing the guideon a client device through computer applications; m) implementing theguide's interfaces for client device for groups of people in groupinteractions of the same strategic level or between strategic levels inthe community of practice; n) implementing the specific guidesinterfaces for individual actions on the client devices for individualinteraction; o) manipulating the guides on the group client devicewhenever there is group interaction or interaction between strategiclevels of the community of practice; p) manipulating the guidesindividually on the personal client devices when there are individualactions; q) storing the data of the manipulated guides in a distributedand asynchronous way on the client devices, maintaining versioning ofdata through historical records; r) synchronizing data of the guidesbetween client devices themselves and with the server whenever there isconnectivity, and s) processing the distributed guide data, organizingand sorting out the history of best practices.
 2. A system implementedby a collaborative distributed computational network comprising aplurality of client devices supported by a computational network tocooperatively perform interactive operations in at least one communityof practice organized in a hierarchical structure in strategic levels,wherein said system comprises: a) a registering module that registers atleast one community of practice in the computational network, creating anetwork of practice; b) an assigning module that assigns a uniqueidentification code to a device in the computational network of thenetwork of practice; c) an identification module, which identifies theuser through a unique identification user code, assigns the user to atleast one network of practice; d) a module of practices definition, inwhich the practice is defined and unfolded in the strategic levels ofthe community of practice and registered on the computational network;e) a localization module that localizes the practice in organizationalor geographic coordinates and registers the localization of the practiceon the computational network; f) a selecting module to select a templateguide containing sequential instructions content (as a script) andcomponents; g) a selecting and setting up module that configures theguide that implements the practice at the strategic levels of thecommunity of practice; h) a publication module that publishes the guideon a client device through computer applications; i) a module forsetting up interfaces that sets up specific interfaces of the guides forindividual actions on the client devices for individual interaction; j)a module for setting up interfaces that sets up specific interfaces ofthe guides for group actions on the client devices for groupinteraction; k) a module of implementation of guides, that manipulatesthe guides on group client device for group interaction or when there isinteraction between strategic levels of the community of practice; l) amodule of implementation of guides, which manipulates the guidesindividually in personal client devices when individual actions arerequired; m) a module for storing data of the manipulated guides in adistributed and asynchronous way in the client devices, maintainingversioning of data by means of historic registering; n) a module of datasynchronization of the guides between the client devices betweenthemselves and the server when the presence of connectivity betweenthem, and o) a module for processing and ordering of data of thedistributed guides in the system.
 3. A devices structure for acollaborative distributed computational network comprising a pluralityof client devices supported by a computational network to cooperativelyperform interactive operations in at least one community of practiceorganized in a hierarchical structure at the strategic levels, saiddevice structure comprising: a) means for registering at least onecommunity of practice on the collaborative distributed computationalnetwork and creation of a network of practice; b) means for assignmentand identification of a unique identification code to a device and auser on the network of practice collaborative distributed computationalnetwork; c) means for connecting the user to the network of practice onthe network of practice collaborative distributed computational network;d) means for definition, unfolding, registration and localization of apractice in the strategic levels of a community of practice on thecollaborative distributed computational network; e) means for selection,setting up and implementation of practices in the network of practicestrategic levels on the collaborative computational distributed network,and f) means for storing guide manipulation data in a distributed way onthe network of practice collaborative distributed computational network.4. The devices structure for a collaborative distributed computationalnetwork according to claim 03, characterized by means for registrationof at least one community of practice on a collaborative distributedcomputational network and creation of a network of practice comprising:a) client devices distributed in different strategic levels of the ofthe community of practice hierarchical structure, whose client devicesare: a1) client devices for individual interaction; a2) client devicesfor group interaction; b) servers connected to client devices atdifferent strategic levels of the community of practice hierarchicalstructure and c) databases distributed through different strategiclevels of the community of practice hierarchical structure , and saiddatabases are spread amongst client devices and servers of saidcommunity of practice.
 5. The devices structure for a collaborativedistributed computational network according to claim 03, characterizedby the means of assignment and identification of a unique identificationcode to a device and a user on the network of practice collaborativedistributed computational network comprising: a) client devicesdistributed at different strategic levels of the community of practicehierarchical structure, whose client devices are: a1) client devices forindividual interaction; a2) client devices for group interaction; b)servers connected to client devices at different strategic levels of thecommunity of practice hierarchical structure o, and c) databasesdistributed through different strategic levels of the community ofpractice hierarchical structure, and said databases are spread amongstclient devices and servers of said community of practice.
 6. The devicesstructure for a collaborative distributed computational networkaccording to claim 03, characterized by means for connection of the userto the network of practice on the network of practice collaborativedistributed computational network characterized by comprising: a) clientdevices distributed at different strategic levels of the community ofpractice hierarchical structure, whose client devices are: a1) clientdevices for individual interaction; a2) client devices for groupinteraction; b) servers connected to client devices at differentstrategic levels of the community of practicc;hicrarchical practicehierarchical structure, c) devices for connection and on demand wired orwireless exchange of data between client devices and servers, and d)devices for remote connection to the group client devices.
 7. Thedevices structure for a collaborative distributed computational networkaccording to claim 03, characterized by means of definition, unfolding,registration and localization of a practice in the strategic levels of acommunity of practice collaborative distributed computational networkcomprising: a) client devices distributed at different strategic levelsof the community of practice hierarchical structure whose client devicesare: a1) client devices for individual interaction; a2) client devicesfor group interaction; b) servers connected to client devices atdifferent strategic levels of the community of practice hierarchicalstructure , and c) databases distributed through different strategiclevels of the community of practice hierarchical structure, and saiddatabases are spread amongst client devices and servers of saidcommunity of practice.
 8. The devices structure for a collaborativedistributed computational network according to claim 03, characterizedby means of selection, setting up and implementation of practices instrategic levels on the network of practice collaborative distributedcomputational network comprising: a) client devices distributed atdifferent strategic levels of the community of practice hierarchicalstructure, whose client devices are: a1) client devices for individualinteraction; a2) client devices for group interaction; b) guide templateinterface displayed on said client devices containing sequentialinstructions content (as a script) and components; c) publishingcomputer applications of the guide interface displayed on said clientdevice; d) guide interface for group interaction between workers fromthe same strategic level or different strategic levels of the communityof practice; e) specific guide interface for individual actions on theindividual client devices; f) manipulation interface of guides betweeninteraction strategic levels of the community of practice featured onsaid group client devices; and g) means for processing the data of themanipulated guides in a distributed way on the network of practicecollaborative distributed computational network.
 9. The devicesstructure for a collaborative distributed computational networkaccording to claim 03, characterized by means of storing the data of themanipulated guides in a distributed way on the network of practicecollaborative distributed computational network comprising: a) clientdevices for distributed and asynchronous data storage and historicregister of actions at different strategic levels of the community ofpractice hierarchical structure , whose client devices are: a1) clientdevices for individual interaction; a2) client devices for groupinteraction; b) servers for distributed and asynchronous data storageand historical record of actions at different strategic levels of thecommunity of practice hierarchical structure; and c) devices for guidedata synchronization through client devices, and servers that haveconnectivity with said client devices.
 10. The devices structure for acollaborative distributed computational network according to claim 03,characterized by means of data processing of the manipulated guides in adistributed way on the network of practice collaborative distributedcomputational comprising servers or client devices for organization,sorting out and sharing the history of practices.
 11. The client devicesdistributed on the network of practice collaborative distributedcomputational network presented in different strategic levels of thehierarchical structure of the community of practice according to claim 3characterized by being constituted by one or more of: a) electronicdevice with individual or group multi-touch interactive surface; b)individual interaction device of the personal computer kind; c)individual interaction mobile device, and d) device for groupinteraction with individual intermediation of the smart television kind12. The client device according to claim 11, whose electronic devicewith individual or group multi-touch interactive surface ischaracterized by comprising: at least two display screens; one of saiddisplay screens comprising multi-touch interactive surface for a groupof users or an individual; means for arranging a plurality of elementsof user interface on the multi-touch interactive surface; means fordetecting users' touch on a display screen of user multi-touchinteractive surface for selection and activation of at least one of aplurality of user interface elements, and means for arranging aplurality of levels of navigation, and displaying on at least one ofsaid display screens in response to user interface element selection andactivation by a user on the user multi-touch interactive surface. 13.The client device according to claim 11, whose individual interactionmobile device is characterized by comprising at least one displayscreen; said display screen comprising the user multi-touch interactivesurface; means for arranging a plurality of elements of user interfaceon the user interactive multi-touch surface; means for detecting users'touch on a display screen of user multi-touch interactive surface forselection and activation of at least one of a plurality of userinterface elements, and means for providing a plurality of levels ofnavigation and displaying at least one of said display screens inresponse to user interface element selection and activation by a user onthe multi-touch interactive surface.
 14. The client device according toclaim 11, in which the group interaction device with individualintermediation is characterized by comprising: at least one displayscreen; a pointing device or other control device for individualinteraction with the interactive surface; a interactive user surfaceconfigured by the display screen coupled with the control device; meansfor arranging a plurality of elements of user interface on the userinteractive surface; means for detecting user's action on theinteractive surface for selection and activation of at least one of aplurality of elements of user interface, and means for arranging aplurality of levels of navigation and displaying at least one of saiddisplay screens in response to user interface elements selection andactivation by a user on the user interactive surface.
 15. The userinterface in the client device according to claim 12, whose said userinterface is characterized by comprising: at least one of a plurality ofuser interface editable elements arranged on the display screen of amulti-touch interactive surface; each element of user interfacecontaining contains editing attributes with information regardingnavigation and editing modes in the configuration of a guide structure,wherein in a first display level , at least one element from a pluralityof possible elements of user interface is available for selection andactivation by the user; in response to manipulation by a user throughthe selection and activation of said first element of the userinterface, a new set of navigation elements is displayed, generating asecond level of display, maintaining the previous level display;subsequent levels of display setting up said compound guide structure;each said display level is editable according to each user accesspermissions; in response to manipulation by a user, each said displaylevel is editable by changing the order of presentation, elimination andmodification of said user interface elements; and in response tomanipulation by a user, each said display level is editable by definingaccess permissions for other users.
 16. The user interface in the clientdevice according to claim 13, whose said user interface is characterizedby comprising: at least one of a plurality of user interface editableelements arranged on the display screen of a multi-touch interactivesurface; each element of user interface containing contains editingattributes with information regarding navigation and editing modes inthe configuration of a guide structure, wherein in a first displaylevel, at least one element from a plurality of possible elements ofuser interface is available for selection and activation by the user; inresponse to manipulation by a user through the selection and activationof said first element of the user interface, a new set of navigationelements is displayed, generating a second level of display, maintainingthe previous level display; subsequent levels of display setting up saidcompound guide structure; each said display level is editable accordingto each user access permissions; in response to manipulation by a user,each said display level is editable by changing the order ofpresentation, elimination and modification of said user interfaceelements; and in response to manipulation by a user, each said displaylevel is editable by defining access permissions for other users. 17.The user interface in the client device according to claim 14, whosesaid user interface is characterized by comprising: at least one of aplurality of user interface editable elements arranged on the displayscreen of a multi-touch interactive surface; each element of userinterface containing contains editing attributes with informationregarding navigation and editing modes in the configuration of a guidestructure, wherein in a first display level , at least one element froma plurality of possible elements of user interface is available forselection and activation by the user; in response to manipulation by auser through the selection and activation of said first element of theuser interface, a new set of navigation elements is displayed,generating a second level of display, maintaining the previous leveldisplay; subsequent levels of display setting up said compound guidestructure; each said display level is editable according to each useraccess permissions; in response to manipulation by a user, each saiddisplay level is editable by changing the order of presentation,elimination and modification of said user interface elements; and inresponse to manipulation by a user, each said display level is editableby defining access permissions for other users.